Kobe Bryant was treated quite well in this game.

Leonard followed the defense almost the entire time, doing everything in his power to limit his scoring as much as possible.

Even if it wasn't Leonard at the peak of his defensive ability, Kobe Bryant was affected.

In the whole game, he shot 10-of-25, barely shot over 40%, and made 8-of-10 free throws, scoring 28 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists.

Wang Chao's performance in today's game is actually compared to the level of ordinary communication during the regular season, with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists, but this is not because he is limited by the Lakers' defense, but he doesn't need to score a lot in the game at all.

With Thomas Jr. scoring 24 points and Da Yao scoring 19 points, all Wang Chao needs to do is make the final decision in the second quarter and consolidate the victory in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter of the game, Wang Chao basically didn't play much, because before the halfway point of the game, the Lakers made a strategic choice to give up and replaced the bench players.

The result of such a game made the home fans of the Rockets excited.

As the game enters the playoffs, what is the biggest fear for Rockets fans? Of course, in the case of Wang Chao's single-core team, the Rockets' offensive ability is insufficient and their tactics are too simple, and they will be restrained by the opponent with more targeted tactics.

But now it seems that there is no need to worry about this at all.

Da Yao showed great dominance under the basket in the first round, proving that he was only building up strength during the regular season.

The outbreak of Thomas Jr., the debut of the second round, gave the Rockets an extra strong scoring point out of thin air, as long as the Rockets players can still play normally in the next few games, there is no problem at all in defeating the Lakers to reach the Western Conference finals.

And so it is.

On May 16, the G2 game in the second round of the playoffs, the situation did not change for the Lakers.

For Thomas Jr., the Lakers can't deal with it at all, if the Rockets' interior line is not a center with a mid-range shooting range like Da Yao, the Lakers can also rely on a big center to guard the basket to contain Thomas Jr.'s ball-holding breakthrough.

But when Da Yao was on the court, whether to choose to defend Thomas Jr.'s breakthrough or deal with Da Yao's mid-range shooting became a tram problem that plagued the Lakers.

In this game, Kobe Bryant deliberately ran to switch defenses with Sessions, trying to defend Thomas Jr. himself.

But Bryant clearly has a misunderstanding about his current defensive ability.

It is true that Kobe Bryant at his peak, his defensive ability can be regarded as the top level in the history of the league, and the only one who can stabilize him in the position of scoring guard is probably Jordan.

And even Joe's helper has only been selected to the All-Defensive Team 9 times in his career, while Kobe Bryant has 12 All-Defensive Team experiences.

Considering that Jordan also has a Defensive Player of the Year award, and Kobe Bryant's three All-Defensive Team Ahead of Jordan are all second-team, Jordan's reputation on the defensive end is still slightly higher than Kobe's.

But Kobe Bryant here is at his peak, when his energy and fighting spirit are at their peak.

Kobe Bryant in the 11-12 season is 34 years old, both in terms of competitive level and physical fitness are at the end of the peak of his career, and his reaction speed and agility are no longer what they used to be.

Therefore, when Kobe and Thomas Jr. were in the opposite position, Thomas, who was not afraid of tigers as a newborn calf, was not used to Kobe Bryant at all, and it was just a sudden attack.

Even Kobe Bryant is not good at guarding Thomas Jr., and the Lakers have no one to restrain him.

In the G2 game, Thomas Jr. scored another 21 points, combined with Wang Chao's 34 points and Da Yao's 22 points, and the three of them combined to score 77 points, tearing the Lakers' defense to pieces.

Kobe Bryant can't be considered unconvinced.

While the defense couldn't defend Thomas Jr., Kobe Bryant on the offensive end also had a headache for Leonard's kraft candy-style defense.

In this game, Kobe's offensive efficiency was also not high, with a shooting rate of only 37%, and thanks to Leonard's efforts to limit Kobe, he committed 6 fouls in the third quarter of the game, and Kobe Bryant also continued to break through the basket with the ball to win the foul whistle, and scored 14 free throws and hit 12 in the whole game, thus scoring 36 points.

It's a pity that even if he scored 36 points alone, Kobe Bryant was still unable to stand alone.

Paul. Gasol continued his slump with a decent efficiency on 6-of-11 shooting, but his stats of 14 points, 9 rebounds and 1 assist obviously had little impact on the game.

Bynum, another member of the Twin Towers, continued to attack the basket in this game, hitting 8 of 19 shots to get 20 points and 11 rebounds.

If Da Yao wants to defend seriously, this guy can't get 20+11 data.

But even if Bynum is allowed to score as much as he wants, the Lakers can't catch up with the Rockets in terms of scoring, so there is no need for Da Yao to burden himself on the defensive end.

As a result, the final score of the two teams was 117:109, and the Rockets went to the next game, bringing the total score to 2:0.

On May 18, the third game of the series, the venue of the game came to Los Angeles, the home court of the Lakers.

Sitting at home, Kobe Bryant broke out strongly, changing the trouble of being pinned down by Leonard in the first two games, shooting 18 of 33 from the field, 6 of 7 from the free throw line, and slashing 42 points and 5 rebounds.

At the same time, Lakers forward Artest also had a rare time, scoring 15 points on 5-of-7 three-pointers in the game, becoming a big boost for the team.

However, even so, the Lakers still struggled to find a win.

Because Wang Chao shot again.

After all, for many Chinese fans, Kobe Bryant is a symbol of the times, representing the strongest scoring player in the world, after all, not everyone has seen how Jordan played at the beginning, Kobe is the Jordan in the minds of many people!

When Wang Chao was on the Magic team, he scored many points with Kobe Bryant in the finals, and relied on his three-point shot and height and arm span to gain the upper hand in the scoring process.

As his strength gets stronger and stronger, it is gradually becoming easier and easier to compete with Kobe, because not only Wang Chao is getting stronger, but Kobe is also gradually getting weaker as he gets older.

Wang Chao knows very well that this playoffs are very likely to become Kobe's swan song in the playoffs, no matter whether the Lakers introduce the F4 combination as the original historical process next season, or make other reinforcements, Kobe may be difficult to play at the peak of the current performance.

Therefore, he will not show the slightest mercy, so that there may not be many opportunities to compete with Kobe Bryant in the playoffs.

In this game, Wang Chao also made a rare crazy shot 35 times and shot 20 balls, and in the case of Artest's strict defense of his three-point shooting, with a large number of medium and long-range shots, Wang Chao scored 47 points.

During the game, he used the most moves to Kobe Bryant's signature back-to-back and drifting shots in the break, which is the so-called killing opponents with opponents' moves.

47vs42, Wang Chao won the battle again and took away the victory.

3:0, such a score has already foreshadowed the end of the series, after all, there has never been a team in the history of the league that can turn the tables back at 3:0.

In the fourth game of the series on May 19, the Lakers finally regained some dignity on their home court, Kobe Bryant scored 37 points, Gasol scored 21 points, Bynum scored 17 points, and the Lakers narrowly defeated the Rockets 103-100 to chase the total score to 3-1.

Immediately after returning to Houston's home court, the Rockets ended the series with a crisp victory, 4:1, and the final score was at least not a sweep, which is not so ugly.

When the full-time whistle blew, the entire Toyota Center Court in Houston was in a state of cheers and revelry.

Western Conference Finals! It's so easy to do!

This is really something that no one expected.

The Rockets have not reached the Western Conference finals in the past ten years since the Olajuwon era, and even in the peak years of the Yao Mai combination, their best result was only the second round, and they never touched the floor of the Western Conference finals.

The arrival of Wang Chao gave them the opportunity to enter the Western Finals...... No, with the strong dominance that the Rockets are currently showing, it is not a dream to reach the Finals or even win the championship like this!

Kobe Bryant stood on the court, the expression on his face was not good-looking, the constant failure has made him more and more dissatisfied with the current situation of the team, his peak is not much left, he hates failure, but in recent years he has been constantly losing, and he is losing to the same person......

Although he was very unwilling to lose to Wang Chao in the game, Kobe Bryant still took the initiative to walk to Wang Chao and hugged and congratulated.

"Come on, win the championship, the opponent I lose to can only be the championship team."

Bryant left this sentence and turned to leave, but when he saw Leonard, he couldn't help but say something again.

"Rookie, your defense is very good, keep working hard, you may become a top superstar in the future."

Xiaoka was flattered by Kobe's words, but Wang Chao couldn't bear to complain about the seemingly handsome words that Kobe Bryant said to himself just now.

"I can only lose to the championship?"

"Didn't you lose to the Mavericks last season and go 4-0, didn't they win the championship either?"

Thinking like this in his heart, Wang Chao felt that it was better to save some face for Kobe, this paranoid who is extremely obsessed with the desire to win and lose, once he failed to win as he wished, he really didn't recognize his six relatives when he went crazy.

——

"The Rockets defeated the Lakers 4-1 to break into the Western Conference finals, and waited for the winner of the battle of the Spurs and Thunder."

"Wise and wise, Thomas Jr. averaged 17.7 points and 4.3 assists per game in the semifinals of the division, and he was only 1.75 meters tall and had such lethality?"

"Wang Chaoda Yao Huaguo is invincible, and the two of them averaged a total of 57 points, 24 rebounds and 13 assists per game in the series, and their performance is even better than the Dynasty Magic Super Demon Combination."

After the Rockets and Lakers divisional semifinals, there were headlines on the front pages.

Both the Rockets and the Lakers are extremely hot teams, at least in terms of attention, much higher than the other set of matchups in the West, Thunder vs Spurs, and also higher than the two sets of matchups in the East, Celtics vs 76ers, Heat vs Pacers.

As with the original historical development, the Bulls, the first in the East, were still blackened by the 76ers, although Rose was not injured in the first game, but it was a knife early and late, and in the third game of the series, Rose was still injured on the ground after a layup, and it was still a torn cruciate ligament, and the season was reimbursed.

If you want to be held accountable, the offensive end is overly dependent on Rose's individual scoring ability, and there is no good tactical system and plan for the Bulls head coach Tom. Thibodeau has to carry at least half of the pot.

Secondly, Rose himself also has to bear part of the responsibility, his style of play is indeed a great risk of injury, in order to ensure lethality, Rose's most common move is not to slow down and break through in disguise, and then throw his whole person into the air to win fouls or layups to score.

It is indeed very difficult to defend a disguised breakthrough without slowing down, but it is also extremely burdensome to the knees, especially the follow-up aerial moves, which have a lot of risks when landing.

With Rose's style of play, it's only a matter of time before he gets injured.

The same principle applies to the previous Da Yao, although the method and the principle of injury are different, but they will be affected by the intensity of the game and their own playing style, resulting in injuries.

Wang Chao treated Da Yao like an ancestor this season, strictly controlled the playing time and resolutely prevented him from playing consecutive away games, and also made adjustments to Da Yao's playing style, so that Da Yao could play healthily until now, Rose obviously did not have this luck, and the result was an injury, and it is still a serious injury that can ruin his entire career.

What's even more regrettable is that Rose in this era, because of Wang Chao, was not able to become the youngest regular season MVP, although it also has good popularity, but it may not become the Windy City Rose that countless people regret like in the future.

In the senses of many fans, Rose may be similar to Roy of the Trail Blazers, but when it comes to it, it will feel a little regrettable that the genius who has been ruined by injury.

Speaking of regular season MVPs, as the second round progresses and ends, the league's season awards are also announced.

The Rookie of the Year was won by Irving of the Cavaliers, who averaged 18.5 points and 5.4 assists per game, at least before Leonard and Butler fully emerged.

The best sixth man is Harden of the Thunder, who averages 16.8 points, 4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game.

Wang Chao is still curious, without the intervention of the Rockets, where will Harden go at the end of this season, whether there is a team interested in him and willing to use him as a cornerstone to cultivate, or will Harden finally choose to compromise and continue to stay with the Thunder in a Ginobili-style role, and then fail to become the top scorer in the league in the future?

McHale won the honor of best coach as he wished, and the Rockets' 52-win record in the regular season is the best in the league, and he just took over as the head coach of the Rockets.

In the same vein, the honor of best manager was also awarded to the agent of the Rockets...... No, it should be the new general manager who has officially become a regular, Myler.

After successfully bringing in Wang Chao in the offseason, selecting four rookies with good potential, and after some trading and reinforcement operations, the current structure of the Rockets was built, and his "credit" naturally deserves the award of the best manager.

Ahem...... Well, Wang Chao still hasn't figured out what the general manager of the Magic team has to drag, he doesn't have a fart ability, he can give Lewis a contract of 100 million yuan, give up renewing Turkoglou, and then successively introduce Carter and Arenas into the general manager of the team.

After the end of this season, with Howard's departure, I am afraid that the general manager of the Magic team will not be able to do it for too long, and maybe one day the team owner will fire him if he is not pleasing to his eyes.

(End of chapter)